[ordinaryperson]

Of the 3 you mention "filtering logging outputs, checking HTTP response codes, throwing errors" only the last one seems universal to me.

Take logging. Super important - I spend a lot of time evangelizing logging to younger devs and how to do it well. But filtering? How? In what way? For what values? I don't have context but the expectation I should be able to filter for specific things you have secret preferences for strikes me as a signal that's not clear or universal.

Checking HTTP codes. In what context? There are plenty of times when it's not helpful -- for example there are many page not founds that DON'T return as 404 (even tho they should). So this a priori belief that all devs should automatically have this built-in preference for checking HTTP codes as some universal signal of quality in programming is, I think, a larger assumption than you might realize.

I don't think there is a perfect way to interview, but I do think if you're going to quiz developers it helps to give them some advance warning of what areas you prefer to focus on so it's not such a random, out-of-left field line of questioning.

You may not consider your questions abnormal -- but that's the problem, neither do the people who ask obscure algorithm questions! It's very hard to validate your assumptions.